Former astronaut Mark Kelly to be sworn in as a US senator Wednesday
Source: CNN
(CNN)Former astronaut Mark Kelly will be sworn in as a US senator for Arizona at noon ET on Wednesday, a senior Democratic aide told CNN. Kelly defeated Republican Sen. Martha McSally in a special election by more than 78,000 votes. A retired Navy captain and NASA astronaut, Kelly was widely viewed as one of the Democratic Party's strongest recruits of 2020. He is married to former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot and nearly killed in 2011 and is now a leader in the movement against gun violence.
McSally was appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, to fill the seat formerly held by the late Sen. John McCain after she narrowly lost a race to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema for Arizona's other Senate seat in 2018. With Kelly's election, the fight over which party controls the chamber hangs on the outcome of two Senate runoff elections in Georgia that will take place in January.
Kelly and his identical twin brother, Scott, were chosen to be astronauts in 1996. The senator-elect flew his first mission into space in 2001 onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and he completed three more missions. Kelly, 56, also spent more than 50 days in space and lived on the International Space Station before retiring from NASA in 2011.
Kelly campaigned on improving gun safety laws, improving services for veterans, and quality healthcare for Arizonians. In 2013, he and Giffords co-founded Giffords, an organization to prevent gun violence after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/30/politics/mark-kelly-swearing-in-arizona-senator/index.html
LovingA2andMI
(7,006 posts)Welcome to the U.S. Senate - U.S. Senator Capt. Mark Kelly!!!
George II
(67,782 posts)DFW
(54,047 posts)Sometime in 2021, when it's "coronably" feasible, there will be a dinner in D.C. with two Johns and two Marks. That will include two brothers, one of which sometimes goes by DFW, and two new Democratic Senators, maybe a Gabrielle as well, if she's up to it. I have known Gabby for as long as I have known her husband, after all.
We all know McTurtle will try to wreak a maximum of damage in the meantime. It's what he does. They don't call him Moscow Mitch for nothing, and his actions to weaken our country benefit Vladimir Vladimirovitch more than anyone who lives in North America. But even Moscow Mitch and his evil won't be able to spoil this occasion, and there will be a LOT of good ideas exchanged.